6.8 demonstration projects

STRENGTHENING CAPACITY THROUGH DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS

Establishing road safety targets and investment strategies and plans is complex, requiring:

• knowledge of existing road safety risks,
• awareness of what can be done, and
• having the capacity to effectively manage the change processes necessary within agencies to achieve integration of road safety activities.

As recommended in Section 3.2 Management System Framework and Tools, the first step for LMICs in establishing their road safety activity (their establishment investment phase) will be to prepare demonstration projects rather than embark on ambitious national road safety plans and aspirational targets which are more appropriate for the growth investment phase in the medium-term. Box 6.5 outlines the high-level objectives of Safe System demonstration projects.

BOX 6.5: WORLD BANK SAFE SYSTEM DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS: HIGH-LEVEL OBJECTIVES

It is important to note that a demonstration project must be carefully adapted to each country. Even though the project will generate expertise, it is vital to prepare an ongoing programme for future actions, based on each country’s capacity.

For HICs, demonstration projects across road safety agencies that trial innovative treatments can also be an effective way to prepare for wider rollouts. They strengthen institutional leadership and capacity, including knowledge and delivery partnerships. Projects of this nature provide a focused opportunity; for example, the chance to trial and embed Safe System approaches within new strategies and practices of the road safety agencies.

DEMONSTRATION PROJECT FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT PHASE IN LMICS

Road Safety demonstration projects could be multi-sectoral activities on selected road corridors or in specific urban areas, and they could also include selected jurisdiction-wide road safety policy reviews. All require coordinated action, by and across the road safety agencies, but with projects at a smaller and more manageable scale than for the complete country or for all potential policy reviews. Note that the term ‘demonstration project’ is sometimes used to describe a small-scale trial of a specific treatment type (e.g. a new innovative treatment). Advice on these and other lower cost approaches is provided elsewhere in this manual (see from Chapter 9. Infrastructure Safety Management: Policies, Standards, Guidelines and Tools).

Capacity needs to be progressively developed, with coordination and decision-making mechanisms agreed upon by the road safety agencies, and then successfully introduced and experienced on a day-to-day basis. Links to decision-making at the political level (between Ministers) need to be achieved. In this environment of unavoidably slower development of understanding and capacity, most benefit will be derived by ‘learning by doing’. The key deliverable would be improved capacity of the country’s road safety agencies to deliver road safety improvement. It would also provide a clear message to the community that improved performance is achievable.

Coordinated on-road corridor treatments of demonstration projects can be:

• The enforcement of laws.
• The identification and treatment of blackspots or high crash risk sections.
• Improving the emergency medical management systems for post-crash care.
• Public information programmes to raise awareness of what is being done and the benefits it will bring.

Separate from those corridor actions, policy development components of demonstration projects (separate from the corridor actions) will usually include some of the following:

• New driver licensing procedures and policies, including testing.
• Improved vehicle safety policies.
• Strengthened road safety rules and regulations.
• Improved licence, and vehicle and traffic offence data systems and their linkage.

The resourcing, guidance and persistence needed to achieve even small changes in approach by the agencies will be substantial. Experience has shown that the level of effort required for this is consistently underestimated and under-resourced. The measurement (both baseline and ongoing) and monitoring of intermediate outcome performance is an essential component of demonstration project activity and is important for the later phases of broader road safety activity.

While detailed digital crash record databases may not be available, the level of overall fatalities can be collated from local police records and hospital records for the demonstration project corridor activity, and usually (with effort) for a larger area. The country would then be in a position to assemble the evidence base to assess demonstration project benefits, and this would support a broad roll-out programme for the subsequent medium term or growth phase.

Detailed project objectives and project components for a road safety demonstration project, drawn from recommendations for the establishment phase arising from a typical recent World Bank road safety management capacity review, are set out in Tables 6.4 and 6.5.

These five objectives are interrelated and mutually reinforcing. The aim is to create a joint project which encourages agencies to work together constructively to deliver (and then evaluate) a set of well-targeted, good practice interventions across the sectors in identified higher-risk corridors; conduct further policy reviews; and accelerate road safety knowledge transfer. It is anticipated that the road safety demonstration project may typically cost around US $20 million (and at least $10 million as a minimum), have four major components and be implemented over a four-year timeframe (see Table 6.5).

The recommended scale of demonstration projects is around this amount and timescale, because minor funding is unlikely to realise the benefits described earlier in this section. The substantial change in the management of road safety from individual agency ‘best efforts’ to a coordinated and well led whole-of-government management approach, which builds the skills necessary to manage a country-wide improvement, requires significant investment and leadership. Governments and funding agencies need to recognise this requirement. An example of a demonstration project is provided in the Kerala, India, case study.